This Week’s #HCWC #WCW: Octavia Butler

Each week HCWC will spotlight a woman within the Harvard community or beyond whose work and actions we deem to be “crush worthy.” We encourage you to participate in our #WCW via your various social media platforms by sharing the women we honor each week to bring light to their important work.

Who she is: Octavia Butler, science fiction writer

Why she’s our #WCW: People tend to think of science fiction as a genre mostly written by and for white men, and Octavia Butler was an amazing black author who basically shatters that assumption. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards (multiple times), she was also the first sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship (genius grant) in 1995. Her work has added to sci-fi in its critique of hierarchical violence and its explorations of what it could mean to be human.